Sunday, January 17, 2016

Ever since the right wingers got wind of the Iran nuclear deal agreement back in July of last year they have been soiling their trousers and screaming bloody murder. This even though the talks began more than four years before their "hearing" about it. But who’s really been paying attention to Iran and their nuclear ambitions anyway, amaright?

There are four main screaming points I have heard from the right over and over and over again. They bring them up in an attempt to prove President Obama’s weak leadership and terrible negotiating skills. It is a drum they have beaten about President Obama's policies since he took office. But let's just stick to this subject for now.

These are, in no particular order, the list of grievances:

1) The Iran nuclear deal proves that President Obama is a weak leader and terrible negotiator!

2) How could Obama have agreed to give Iran a nuclear weapon?!?!

3) President Obama is just handing them 1.5 billion dollars!

4) Why didn’t President Obama get our four prisoners back in the deal?

Let’s debunk these in order.

1) TheIran nuclear deal negotiationswere held with 5 world powers other than the US. They included the U.S.A., Britain, France, Russia, China, Germany and of course Iran. The image of a weak Obama giving away the store in a terrible deal with Iran is a canard the right wing likes to foster. It fits the false narrative I mentioned earlier.

2) Nobody gave Iran a nuclear weapon. The talks were intended to keep nuclear weaponry out of Iran’s possession... Which it has. Just yesterday Iran surrendered it's enriched uraniumas was agreed to in the treaty, which leads us to number 3...

3) No one gave Iran any money least of all America or it's tax paying citizens. The monies they will receive were theirs to begin with. It was being withheld from Iran through economic sanctions levied on them by the six aformentioned nations until they surrendered their nuclear arsenal… Which they have! So they get their money back.

4) As for our prisoners, after months of top-secret negotiations, President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry got not 4, but 5 Americans released yesterday(!) through a swap with Iran. The released prisoners were Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian, pastor Saeed Abedini, Nosratollah Khosrawi-Roodsari, marine veteran Amir Hekmati and apart from the deal Matthew Trevithick. For their return we gave back seven Iranians (Six of the seven have dual Iranian-American citizenship) all of whom were being held on sanctions charges. The seven prisoners in the exchange were “whittled down” to exclude any whose crimes related to violence or terrorism. In addition they have the option of staying in the US.

So there you have it. Every one of the conservative wig-nut talking points concerning the Iran nuclear accord debunked. I am sure once this information trickles down to whacko right wingers they will cease and desist with their hyperventilating hyperbolic rhetoric... immediately.